1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to improved signal transmitting channel with SGS or GSGSG pattern for high-speed signaling applications. This channel design can be implemented in, for example, printed circuit boards (PCBs), PCB assembly (PCBA), chip packages such as leadframe packages or the like, for both differential-mode impedance (Zdiff) and common-mode impedance (Zcom) matching.
2. Description of the Related Art
As known in the art, semiconductor integrated circuit (IC) chips have input/output (I/O) pads that are connected to external circuitry in order to function as part of an electronic system. The connection media may be an array of metallic leads such as a leadframe or a support circuit such as a ball grid array (BGA) substrate. Wire bonding and flip-chip bonding are two widely used connection techniques. In wire bonding approach, wires are bonded, one at a time, from the chip to external circuitry by ultrasonic or thermocompression processes. During wire bonding, mechanical force such as pressure or a burst of ultrasonic vibration and elevated temperature are typically required to accomplish metallurgical welding between the wires or bumps and the designated surface.
Flip-chip bonding involves providing pre-formed solder bumps on the pads, flipping the chip so that the pads face down and are aligned with and contact matching bond sites, and melting the solder bumps to wet the pads and the bond sites. After the solder reflows, it is cooled down and solidified to form solder joints between the pads and the bond sites. A major advantage of flip-chip bonding over wiring bonding is that it provides shorter connection paths between the chip and the external circuitry, and therefore has better electrical characteristics such as less inductive noise, cross-talk, propagation delay and waveform distortion.
A leadframe typically includes a plurality of metal leads temporarily held together in a planar arrangement about a central region during package manufacture by a rectangular frame. A die pad is supported in the central region by a plurality of tie bars that attach to the frame. The leads extend from a first end integral with the frame to an opposite second end adjacent to, but spaced apart from, the die pad. During package manufacture, a semiconductor die is attached to the die pad. Wire-bonding pads on the die are then connected to selected ones of the inner leads by fine, conductive bonding wires to convey power, ground or signals between the die and the leads. A protective body of an epoxy resin is molded over the assembly to enclose and seal the die, the inner leads, and the wire bonds against harmful environmental elements. The rectangular frame and the outer ends of the leads are left exposed outside of the body, and after molding, the frame is cut away from the leads and discarded, and the outer ends of the leads are appropriately formed for interconnection of the package with an external printed circuit board.
A semiconductor chip can generate or receive a high-speed I/O signal at an I/O cell and may conduct the signal to or from a package terminal. The high-speed I/O signals may travel on transmission lines that are intended to maintain signal fidelity over a distance. Signal integrity is a set of measures of the quality of an electrical signal. Signal integrity engineering is an important activity at all levels of electronics packaging and assembly, from internal connections of an IC, through the package, the printed circuit board (PCB), the backplane, and inter-system connections. In nanometer technologies at 0.13 μm and below, unintended interactions between signals (e.g. crosstalk) became an important consideration for digital design. At these technology nodes, the performance and correctness of a design cannot be assured without considering noise effects.
The main cause of signal integrity problems is crosstalk. This is primarily due to coupling capacitance, but in general it may be caused by mutual inductance, substrate coupling, non-ideal gate operation, and other sources. The fixes normally involve changing the sizes of drivers and/or spacing of wires. In digital ICs, noise in a signal of interest arises primarily from coupling effects from switching of other signals. Increasing interconnect density has led to each wire having neighbors that are physically closer together, leading to increased coupling capacitance between neighboring nets. Larger mutual capacitance and mutual inductance also induce larger common-mode impedance and smaller differential impedance. The signal reflection also causes poor signal integrity due to impedance mismatch.
As circuits have continued to shrink in accordance with Moore's law, some effects have conspired to make noise problems worse. For example, to keep resistance tolerable despite decreased width, modern wire geometries are thicker in proportion to their spacing. This increases the sidewall capacitance at the expense of capacitance to ground, hence increasing the induced noise voltage. These effects have increased the interactions between signals and decreased the noise immunity of digital circuits. This has led to noise being a significant problem for digital ICs and high-speed signaling applications.
As a consequence of the low impedance required by matching, PCB signal traces carry much more current than their on-chip counterparts. This larger current induces crosstalk primarily in a magnetic, or inductive, mode, as opposed to a capacitive mode. The signal itself and its returning signal current path are equally capable of generating inductive crosstalk. Although differential trace pairs may help to reduce these effects, however, in some cases, there are still drawbacks to be overcome. For example, in leadframe packages or circuit boards such as 2-layer PCBs, the lack of a near reference plane (e.g. power plane or ground plane) leads to larger mutual inductance and capacitance, this in turns, causes smaller differential-mode impedance (Zdiff) and larger common-mode impedance (Zcom), which are undesirable in high-speed signal transmission applications such as data transmission through interfaces that are compatible with Mobile High-Definition Link (MHL) specification.